India reports 18,552 COVID-19 cases in 24 hrs; tally tops 5 lakh

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ Six days after it recorded four lakh infections, India’s COVID-19 tally raced past five lakh on Saturday with the highest single-day surge of 18,552 cases, while the death toll climbed to 15,685, according to Union health ministry data.

The COVID-19 caseload zoomed to 5,08,953, while 384 fresh fatalities were recorded in the last 24 hours. It took 110 days for coronavirus infection in the country to reach one lakh while just 39 days more to go past the five lakh-mark on June 27. This was the fourth consecutive day when coronavirus infection increased by more than 15,000, while there has been a surge of 3,18,418 infections from June 1 till June 27.

 The number of active cases stands at 1,97,387, while 2,95,880 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, according to the updated figure at 8 am. “Thus, around 58.13 per cent patients have recovered so far,” an official said.  The total number of confirmed cases include foreigners.